Does time spent in the lower astral plane diminish karmic debt in any way?

One who is human often thinks of crime and punishment together. This is a very well-ingrained principle of human experience that is universally shared. This is because of ignorance, the suppression of ideas, and the imposition of the perspectives of extraterrestrial taskmasters who see things this way themselves. Things are done through force and not reason. The appeal is to the desire for revenge and the satisfying of anger in response to the unfair treatment that may be received at the hands of another. All of these notions are non-divine; they have their practical utility, but we will not defend them to you. The way people end up in lower astral plane is through many, many types of hurdles and difficulties—many of the person's own choosing. Being trapped in between planes of existence may well have karmic causes, and in that respect, it may constitute the repayment of a karmic debt of some kind—a rebalancing of energy, much as you would think of as incarceration paying back society for a theft, or even the taking of a life. That is the best that can be done as humans, and this we would say is the best karma could do for beings in the human physical plane. There is a semblance of energetic equivalents between imprisonment in the lower astral plane deprived of all sensation, which includes all forms of pleasure, and the paying back of a debt for a serious wrongdoing which deprived pleasure for perhaps many others. This is not decided by divine realm; this is decided by humans and what they do from day to day. This is not the preference of divine realm to be a mechanism to serve as karmic debt. The orderly way to do this is to return to the light and to have some rest and recuperation—time away from the battlefield, so to speak— and not be lost in limbo being continually tormented and deprived of any progress. This is a very, very large negative to the soul in all respects. In fact, it is an experience that far outweighs any human wrongdoing that might happen—including the killing of other people. When someone is killed, they returned to Creator's arms and experience love beyond measure. It is in many ways more of a blessing than not. To be sure, there is pain for the survivors who are deprived of their friend or loved one. But the grievousness of the crime pales in comparison to the reality of existence, which is that you are all immortal. There are no problems of great seriousness. Being trapped in between planes is a major crime against the soul. You may choose to inflict that on yourself. But when it comes at the hands of interlopers—in particular, dark spirits who descend on a person leaving their body at the moment of death and who so distract them they are unable to see and cooperate with the light callers who would take them home to where they truly belong—that intervention is a heinous act of the highest magnitude. This is a typical scenario. In most cases, this is coming through a force of evildoers and not through the choice of the person directly. People may make choices which result in their being more vulnerable, and then these things can happen more readily. It is no different than any other weakening of the self, and then seeing something take place unexpectedly but is actually a logical extension of possibilities—for example, drinking to excess and attempting to drive home. The choice was made and the impairment causes a catastrophe in some cases. A life spent in difficulty without an earnest attempt to heal will lead a person in a downward spiral, and increase the chance that they will not progress, and will not even return to the light. In a sense, they are setting themselves up for this eventuality, but it would not happen without the effects of the interlopers who make things much, much worse. This is a complex subject, but the quandary of humans in dealing with these very forces is a problem needing a solution. It only exists because humans have not solved the dilemma of their existence. This is the challenge for humanity right here and right now. Will you continue to be complacent and living in ignorance of this source of evil, or will you take action and enlist divine help? That is the ultimate answer, and then the problem will largely disappear.